This invention relates to energetic munitions compounds, and in particular to cyclic nitramines.
The propellant industry is constantly striving for compounds that are both safe and have adequate performance characteristics for use in munitions, including both explosives and propellants. Some current high volume ingredients such as cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) are very effective in providing impetus for projectiles. However, this compound and others like it are sensitive to shock and electric spark. Other less hazardous compounds such as nitroguanidine (NQ), for example, can be substituted for RDX. Unfortunately, nitroguanidine, despite having excellent spark and shock insensitivity, suffers in the performance aspect when compared with RDX. To date, there is no known cost effective compound which is both safe to handle and has performance characteristics adequate to replace the high volume energetic compounds.